Witness or whitewash?
Panel debate, ‘Church Investment: witness or whitewash?’, to be held at Friends House
Friends House is to host an open panel debate on 17 October about ‘Church Investment: witness or whitewash?’ during National Ethical Investment Week, which runs from 13 to 19 October. The debate will explore whether the churches invest in a way that fully reflects their Christian message. It will discuss examples of investments being used as a lever to bring about positive social and environmental change. It will also discuss calls for the churches to take a more radical approach.
The new website ‘Your Faith, Your Finance’ will be launched at the event. Symon Hill from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) developed the website in close consultation with the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR). It is the first website that explicitly links investment options to faith values. It will provide reflection on theological and moral issues around money and will offer a range of resources to encourage users to think about the money both they and their church hold in banks, pensions and investments.
The website forms the first part of the ECCR initiative ‘Ethical Money Churches’. This project aims to empower churches and their members to express Christian values and bring positive change through their investments and banking arrangements.
‘Churches can face big dilemmas when it comes to the practicalities of combining faith and finance, as we saw over the summer in national news coverage of some national church investments,’ said Michael Doe, Church of England bishop and chair of the ECCR Board, who will also be chairing the debate.
